Lenny Kravitz Is Back With A Video That’s The Most Powerful Statement Of His Career

Today, veteran music superstar Lenny Kravitz has released the first single from his upcoming eleventh album, Raise Vibration (September 7). For an artist recognized for his ability to channel past eras, spanning a multitude of genres and styles, “It’s Enough” is very much influenced by the production and protest style of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? period.

The record, with very similar subdued percussion and softly spoken call to action to Gaye’s 1971 “Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)” hit, takes the bigger forces in the universe head-on. Kravitz sings of a corrupt system that we cannot trust, an overlooked global heartland in Africa, and how all of us are “just getting f*cked” by the Powers That Be. More than a melancholic look at what is hurting the planet, Lenny asks, “when will the desire for love outweigh the desire for power? When will we face the truth and allow our hearts to fly?” Kravitz calls for a better world for the planet, humans, and all living things. The song is a soulful warning that an end is near if we do not collectively change our ways.

The nearly nine-minute video to the song features graphic images of all the tensions that are transpiring in the world today. North Korean soldiers, tiki-torch white supremacists at Charlottesville, dead children, pollution of all types are shown, along with a relentless display of human, social, racial, sexual, and environmental atrocities. However, there is also footage of those taking action—through speaking out, demonstrating, protesting, and not letting these bigger forces prevail. The record is powerful and palpable, but one that rallies change as much as it condemns evil.

“People are standing up. I’ve had enough of racism. I‘ve had enough of war. I’ve had enough of the destruction of the environment and the greed and dishonesty of world leaders,” Kravitz said in a press statement to correspond with the video. “We’ve got to get back on track towards moving forward through higher understanding.”